By now, many people know the power of online advertising. Google derives virtually all of its financial strength from it, site owners across the globe are making good money from it, and online tricksters everywhere are doing their best to take advantage of it. So, it comes as no surprise that Yahoo!’s new ad platform is very important for the Web giant, which has struggled mightily because of its online advertising stumbles.
The Web portal’s ineptitude in this arena was highlighted last month in an article in WIRED Magazine, and was one of the main reasons why the company’s stock took major blows in 2006.
This is why a new study released by comScore Networks must sound like sweet music to Yahoo!. The online metrics firm reported that click-through rates on Yahoo!’s new advertisements jumped 5% in the week ending February 11, and 9% in the week ending February 18. These increases were compared to the week ending February 4.
Yahoo!’s new online ad platform, named Panama, went live on February 5, 2007.
The major difference between Panama and the old, awkward Yahoo!/Overture amalgam is that Panama bases ad rankings based on bids and ad relevance. The older platform only took bid amounts into account.
Will Yahoo!’s advertising business catch up to Google’s? Probably not anytime soon, but it will be interesting to see if Web site owners will be willing to give Yahoo! a shot. But these early signs are great for Yahoo!, which has had a rough year filled with financial woes and missed acquisitions.
Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070226/tc_infoworld/
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http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/yahoo.html
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